With the Magpies strongly linked with a move for Valbuena's club and international team-mate Loic Remy during the January transfer window, as a replacement for the departed Demba Ba, the Premier League outfit have already clinched the signing of France's first-choice right-back Mathieu Debuchy this month.

"He wouldn't go. You don't leave Marseille to go and play for Newcastle," Christophe Hutteau told French radio station RMC.

"It's just a fad. There was Arsenal, today it's Newcastle, tomorrow it'll be Liverpool or Chelsea."

Marseille are currently sit third in the Ligue 1 table, level on points with both Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain, in what promises to be a closely contested title race with only goal difference separating the three sides.